March 2009 The Magazine of the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club Cover Photo : Vince Woodman at the February Club Night Photo : Andy Moss 2009 BPMC Events Calendar Updates in Bold Month Date Day Event Venue Jan 12th Mon BPMC Club Night Almondsbury Sports & Social Jan 23rd Fri Navigation Exercise Fedw Wood ref, 504.1/2 984 Feb 9th Mon Club Night - Vince Woodman North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Feb 20th Fri Navigation Scatter Gordano Services M5 J19 Mar 6th Fri Navigation Exercise Fox & Hounds, Map 173, Ref 808/808 Mar 9th Mon BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Mar 13th Fri Stoneleigh Historic Show Club Trip Apr 6th Mon Club Night - Tony Castle-Miller North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Apr 19th Sun PCT Dundry May 4th Mon Wessex Sprint Colerne Airfield May 9th Sat Mercedes World/Brooklands Trip Club Trip May 11th Mon BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury May 18th Mon Treasure Hunt Announced in time for the event May 25th Mon Llandow Sprint Llandow (nr Llantwit Major) Jun 8th Mon BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Jun 14th Sun ACE Classic Tour Jun 20th Sat Chepstow Solo Chepstow Racecourse Jun 22nd Mon Treasure Hunt Announced in time for the event Jul 13th Mon BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Jul 20th Mon Treasure Hunt Announced in time for the event Aug 10th Mon BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Aug 15th Sat CC Test Day Castle Combe Race Circuit Aug 17th Mon Treasure Hunt Announced in time for the event Aug 31st Mon 2 Club Sprint Colerne Airfield Sep 14th Mon BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Sep 19th Sat Chepstow Solo Chepstow Racecourse Oct 12th Mon BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Oct 17th Sat Pegasus Sprint Castle Combe Race Circuit Oct 30th Fri Navigation Scatter Announced in time for the event Nov 9th Mon BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Nov 19th Thur Karting Challenge Raceway Nov 27th Fri Navigation Exercise/Scatter Announced in time for the event Dec 14th Mon BPMC AGM North Bristol RFC Almondsbury Dec 30th Wed Xmas Noggin & Natter Golden Heart Winterbourne Friday 6th March 2009 - Nav Ex This months Nav-Ex is the last one for this winter season and is organised by Paul Bird. The start will be from the car park of his regular 'Hostelry', the Fox & Hounds in Acton Turville, map ref 173 808/808. The route will all take place on map 173. Please arrive from 7.00pm for a 7.30 start time. Monday 9th March - BPMC Club Night North Bristol RFC Almondsbury - An informal club night in the lounge area. Please arrive anytime from 8pm onwards. Friday 13th March Stoneleigh Historic Show club trip - more details later in Backfire. Monday 6th April 2009 - BPMC Club Night Guest Speaker - Tony Castle-Miller Guest speaker Tony Castle-Miller - Fiat Abarth specialist Sunday 19th April- Production Car Trial Regs available soon from the club website or contact Tim Murray Monday 4th May 2009 - Wessex Sprint Our first speed event of 2009, Colerne remains as popular as ever. Regs are on the website or available from entries secretary Carole Morgan on 01275 790855. As always if you are not competing the only way to see the action is to marshal. As always we are looking for contributions for Backfire Editor : Cherry Robinson - By Post : Rustling Elms, Half Acre Lane, Whitchurch, Bristol, BS14 0JJ - By E-mail : [email protected] Website WWW.BRISTOLPEGASUS.COM Publication Deadlines for Backfire April - 27th March May - 1st May June - 29th May July - 3rd July August - 31st July September - 4th September October - 2nd October November - 30th October December - 4th December CHAIRMAN'S CHAT By Andy Moss Our first club night at North Bristol RFC was well attended and I think everyone enjoyed listening to our guest speaker, Vince Woodman. The evening coincided with a couple of inches of snow, and I know quite a few of us did not hang around for too long at the end of the evening in order to avoid the weather. Thanks to Vince for the excellent talk and to Nick Wood for organising. Next month we will be using the other part of the club and will be having an informal evening, so plenty of time for a drink and a chat. One of the nice things about the setup there is that there are two areas - where we held the talk last month is great when we need the space, but the other area is more comfortable for our informal meetings. One of the other advantages of this arrangement is we can get things going a bit earlier and still give the committee time to finish off our meeting using the other area. I would therefore encourage members to arrive from about 8 and take advantage of the chance to have a bit of a longer evening. The snow last month also stopped one of my planned trips when the "Bristol" Classic Car show at Shepton Mallet fell victim to the weather. The event will now be held over three days in May - if nothing else it should be a bit warmer than usual. It is amazing to think that this show is now in its 30th year, and I remember the shows at the dock side exhibition centre with great affection - even if it was impossible to move some times for the crowds. Talking of car shows, the club of course has our ever popular trip to Stonleigh for Race Retro this month, and I am looking forward to what is sure to be a great day out. We also have the final Navigation event of the first half of the year this month - hopefully this will be as well supported as the January event which I think everyone enjoyed. !!!!! 2009 BPMC MEMBERSHIP !!!!! !!!!! LAST CALL FOR RENEWALS !!!!! 2008 memberships expire on 31st March and those who have not renewed by then will no longer be members so PLEASE take action if this applies to you. (As before, many thanks to the 250 members who have renewed/joined) John Corfield - Mem Sec - [email protected] - 07717677271 Club Membership Renewal available Online You can now apply for club membership or renew your existing club membership via our new online membership system. And you can currently pay using PayPal (you don't need an PayPal account to pay) or Google Checkout. Why not try using our new online membership to renew, as it couldn't be easier. No cheques to write or letters to send and is quicker than post. We are using the two main payment providers on the internet, so you can be assured of the highest security possible when submitting payment details. The Bristol Pegasus Motor Club does not hold or receive any credit/debit card details from the payment providers, as we only receive details that the correct payment has been made. http://www.bristolpegasus.com/membership VINCE WOODMAN TALK Monday 9th February - By Tim Murray We were very fortunate to have Vince Woodman at the February club night, firstly because the bad weather might well have disrupted things, and secondly because he gave us an excellent evening of his reminiscences and thoughts. In spite of the weather and the relocation to our new club night venue, there was a surprisingly good attendance. Vince told us that he started his motor sport career in a Triumph TR3 at a Dyrham Park hillclimb, then graduating to an E-type. As a Ford dealer he then got his hands on a Lotus Cortina with which he had a lot of success, including beating Ford star Roger Clark in a race at Mallory Park. This caught the eye of Ford Competitions Manager Henry Taylor and led to the Ford backing that Vince enjoyed for much of his career. His works Fords included a special 1000 cc Escort built especially to try to take points off Bill McGovern's Imp in the British Saloon Car Championship, and then another Escort with a very special 1300 cc BDA engine which revved to 10,000 rpm and turned out 186 bhp. Then came the Cologne Capris. According to Vince these were initially undriveable, but once Ralph Broad at Broadspeed got hold of a couple he sorted out the handling. One of these cars was the car, driven by Dave Matthews, that was destroyed in the dreadful pile-up at Silverstone in 1973. The other car was sold by Broad to Bo Emanuelson in Sweden, but when this type of car was banned from Swedish saloon racing, Vince agreed to swap his Camaro for Bo's Capri - Vince reckoned he got the better deal! Vince has owned this car ever since, and it has brought him much success - it still holds the outright saloon lap record at Castle Combe, set in 1977. The car was 'retired' in the late '80s, but has recently been rebuilt by Roger King, who was the apprentice at Broadspeed in the early '70s and knew the car backwards. Vince brought it out last year at the Classic meeting at Castle Combe, and won the race. For many years Vince was a leading contender in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and recalled with pleasure the amazing dices between the big Capris and Rovers in the early '80s. Between 1986 and 1990 Vince competed in the Thundersaloons Championship, initially in the Cologne Capri and later in the fearsome Vauxhall Carlton which he shared with John Cleland. Vince had fond memories of this car - 700 bhp, and 198 mph down the straight at Zandvoort. In recent years Vince has been an instructor for Ferrari UK, and has been having great fun driving Ferrari 360s - he says the only way to drive them is to turn off all the driver 'aids' such as traction control and let rip - unless it's wet.